1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a kit comprising complementary modules simulating courses of a brick wall. The four types of elements of the kit include a simulated base course, a simulated center course, a simulated top course, and additional simulated mortar joints. The kit is ideally suited for building low walls.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well established that building masonry walls and sections thereof is a tedious task, since a large number of individual bricks or blocks, or their equivalents, must be laid individually. This entails both time and also skill, since a poor impression results from bricks that are not uniformly and evenly aligned throughout all three dimensions. To hasten the process of building such a wall or wall section, the prior art has suggested many designs for prefabricated modules each including many courses of bricks or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,585, issued to Earl D. Hasenwinkle et al. on May 30, 1989, most closely illustrates the purpose of the present invention, although departing considerably from the resultant appearance and preferred construction. The low wall shown in this patent is similar in many respects to the low wall which is the subject of the present invention, in that it is employed as a border for shrubbery, trees, flower beds, and the like. However, the appearance resulting from the building module of Hasenwinkle et al. is that of landscape timbers, as contrasted to simulation of bricks in the present invention. The simulation of the present invention has individually articulated individual bricks and associated mortar joints in each module. Also, Hasenwinkle et al. provide vertical holes for accepting fasteners, which holes are absent in the present invention. Instead, the present invention allows for a finished top surface devoid of holes or bores.
Among those masonry modules which intentionally simulate brick masonry, the tendency is to include a significant number of vertically stacked courses in a single module. These are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,336,949, issued to Norman J. Mortimer on Dec. 14, 1943, 4,275,540, issued to William A. Keller on Jun. 30, 1981, and 4,644,719, issued to Edward J. Salazar on Feb. 24, 1987. While provision of a plurality of stacked vertical courses provides a significant time savings in constructing a tall wall, it contravenes the ability to build a short wall. Even if built to include the three courses provided in the present invention, a unitary three course module has shortcomings. These shortcomings include inability to accommodate corners, inability to form intersections of walls which are perpendicularly oriented to one another, and inability to form even ends of walls.
It is also more difficult to fabricate modules including two or more vertical courses, especially when simulating standard overlapped courses. Therefore, even the relatively uncomplicated two course modules depicted in FIGS. 4 and 5 of Mortimer are not truly suitable for the purposes of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,078,329, issued to Albert F. La Spina on Apr. 27, 1937, and 3,391,507, issued to Doris D. Downing on Jul. 9, 1968, illustrate blocks of great width, faced with three simulated brick courses. This type of module is unsuitable for the purposes of the present invention because of the considerable weight and depth of the module, and also since the open cores of the blocks are upwardly open. There is no provision for simulation of a corner construction, as detailed above, or of a neat end of a wall.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.